


Comfort at the Roots

by mistyvoid



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types
Genre: also there's lots of mentions/hints of minor characters but yeah, mainly all fluff and plants and cuddles, the Jar Jar thing was mainly for the lols because I thought the J.J. thing was clever, this feels like a mess but it was fun to write anyways
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-14
Updated: 2016-12-14
Packaged: 2018-09-08 12:43:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,233
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8845564
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mistyvoid/pseuds/mistyvoid
Summary: Just a casual day in Rey’s new modern day life in a tiny flower shop. She texts her best friends a lot, gets sent out on a little plant-quest, and cares a lot about small things. Involves lots of cuddles and plants.





	

**Author's Note:**

> An alternate title to this was almost 'Optimist Botanist'. 
> 
> Apologies for any typos or just... plot holes or anything wrong. I didn't really beta this.

The Tuesday and Sunday evenings were the quietest. It wasn't the worst thing, in fact, Rey took this time to stare adoringly at her rather lush surroundings and water her plant friends. They grew in every-which-way, clambering to every inch of the tiny shop she'd been helping run these past couple months.

When she had passed the interview, her boss, Qui-Gon, had told her that she'd breezed past it in the best way possible. That was also partially because not many people were interested in this quaint job. Either way, Rey enjoyed it more than a lot of things in her life. It entertained and relaxed her to figure out the names of certain flowers, plants, and future friends she had yet to know. She was also eternally thankful that her boss was rather chill about her not knowing all of the plants, or certain facts in general, and was just a big believer of learning on the spot. Rey learned that a lot of people in this corner of the city felt this way, too. It was a cool, chill place to be in, really.

 

On this slightly lonely Tuesday evening, Rey pondered over her plants. Many were new, so she took her time to acquaint herself with them. Qui-Gon was out, usually on the quiet days and on many evenings.

 

Rey's phone pinged up with a text tone from her close friend. Finn's incredibly adorable goofy face was her lock screen and made her smirk as she saw the text from him, coincidentally, that read:

 

'you all alone tonight, b?'

Finn had started to call her 'b' or 'bee' since she had started to work at the shop. It made her giggle, always.

'Yeah, you?'

'I'm still with Maz, but I get off work early, should I swoop by for some late dinner?'

Rey glanced at the time on her phone, it was 8pm.

Finn was with Maz a lot lately, helping her out at her constantly bustling bar and being trained with some self-defense classes. It was something that intrigued him after several events and classes he had tried out. They taught other younglings together, including older students. It made Finn incredibly happy.

 

Rey also lived in the apartment above the flower shop, which Qui had overly-kindly, in her opinion, offered her with the job. Seeing as he was also the landlord, things were smooth and calm. Qui did have only a small space, but it was enough for Rey. And the thin walls were still able to drown out a little of Qui's snoring and type-writing that he did in the middle of the night. Rey knew that he burned and smoked some of the plants they they sold, or were not able to sell. As experiments and as calming measures. Rey had never asked him about this, but it still peaked her curiosity. Especially because the walls didn't hide the entirety of that, either.

 

A rather good ramen restaurant sat directly next to the plant shop. When Finn wasn't with Maz, busy with her tasks, he was at Rey's, and they were usually eating at that ramen place. Or close-by.

'Come by if you want, I'm not too hungry, though'

'K. I'll grab a big serving of fried rice and two forks if you change your mind when I get there.'

Rey attempted a half-smirk. She knew this had happened a handful of times before. (Or rather, a fork-ful.)

'Grabbing some older gems. Hope you like them.'

At times like these when they hung out at Rey's lonely little place, either of them got together a playlist while the other grabbed the food. It was starting to become a tradition by now.

 

By the time Finn got there, it was nearly 9pm, and Rey got anxious about it. She didn't like when Finn came around in the dead of night like that. She fretted for his safety, however, the smell of fried rice and spring rolls emanating into the front room immediately whisked her worries away. In turn, it did also make her tummy grumble involuntarily.

 

It was actually way past the shop's closing time, but Rey was adamant about waiting for Finn to appear and wanted to keep the lights on for as long as possible for him. Qui-Gon had never said a word about it to her before. She, in a rather quick succession; yawned, closed up the shop, turned off the light, then scattered upstairs with Finn and their 'very-late dinner'.

 

They listened to mainly soft movie soundtracks and jazz that Rey had been handed from her boss as a gift. Food filled their tummies. Words were sparse and giggly. Toes were tickled with foot-fights that featured funny socks. Rey nicked two too-many spring rolls, because it made Finn yelp with joking accusations. All in all, these two were bundled in a joyous little reunion of happiness.

 

The next morning, they were wrapped up in each others blankets. Both shared a low-mattress, which was probably the only type of bedding that could fit in Rey's small place. They didn't share blankets, however. Finn had his own safety blanket, especially at Rey's place, which was now entangled around Rey's waist and ankles. No funny business had ever happened between them, just intense hugs. The both of them always loved a lot of constant contact between each other, especially while sleeping.

 

Rey was awake at 6am, knowing that Finn had to open the shop in an hour and a half, and knowing that Finn had training early in the mornings and work late at night. They both woke with groggy minds, sleep-crusted eyes, their hands fumbling in the warm, fuzzy blankets. Rey sensed stinky leftover food, laundry that needed to be done, some plants that needed some love, and a loss of a presence. Not in a drastic way, just that Qui-Gon was out, when he was usually heard cleaning around the shop and making some tea or coffee in his own apartment by now.

Rey descended the stairs with tiptoed caution. A familiar face on a bike, holding a box of donuts passed by the windowed door. She recognized Poe from a couple blocks down. He worked in a quaint vehicle repair place. She'd never really formally met him, but they somehow knew each other's name's very well. They most often saw each other at the famous local doughnut and coffee shop.

 

The sun was clearly shining high and bright this day; soft and cheerful music coming from outside. Rey knew that there was a small local band who sometimes busked near her shop. She loved them, because they usually attracted some more customers. She'd seen that the two lead singers before; one had dark hair and a scar on one side of his face. The other, which Qui sometimes noted, was his younger pen-pal friend who worked at a camp of sorts. He had a ginger beard and ginger hair. They made her smile when she occasionally heard their music drifting about.

 

A handwritten note was plopped on a very small, yet face-height refrigerator. It held lots of fertilizers and other necessities inside. The note read:

'I'm out for the day, sorry love cakes.  
A good old friend will be coming around at 8 to help with the shop.  
Expect a J.J. B'

 

Finn was behind her, squinting.  
He had two cups of tea in one hand, somehow.

'Love cakes?!'

'He's like my father by now. Or my cool uncle. I don't know. I have him listed as Qui-Bong in my phone.'

'Wow, I don't even want to know,' Finn muttered as he handed Rey her big cup of sweet smelling tea.

Rey spotted another scribbled note on the door, as she was changing the closed sign to open. It read:

'Also wanted to let you know that I need you to head out to Duro to grab a Jacinder flower. Please help J.J. Until mid-day. I'll be back by 5:30, hope you have it by then. Much thanks.'

She smirked at his poor grammar on the sign out. She'd pulled the note off the door and stuck it under the one on the fridge. Rey tended to the plants that needed it, but kept Finn in her peripheral. He squinted intensely at the new note.

"A what from where?”

He blew on his tea for a bit, very softly, then looked back up to Rey before she could even answer.

"Does he send you on quests like this a lot?”

Rey shook her head, because, in fact, this was possibly only the second time. The first time had been more of a field trip with her boss on her trial of the job, where he had shown her many different plants and had asked her to grab and pick a collection of different flowers in the end.

 

She eyed Finn once she'd finished tending to most of the plants, he was still staring at the notes. With nimble, dirt covered fingers, she texted another one of her best friends: Jess.

Jess was a pilot and had met Rey at another one of the local cafe shops. She had had Poe as her 'wing-man', actually, and Rey thought they were the cutest best friend duo. Other than herself and Finn, of course.

Her and Jess had hit it off at a 6pm meeting, talking about everything under the sun.

 

'Qui's sent me on a quest!'

'Ohh... for what?'

'Treasure.... no, just a rare plant.'

'Well, rare plants are treasures'

'Maybe only to me and Qui'

'Plants are cool to me, too'

'Would they still be treasures to you if you hadn’t met me?'

'Maybe considerably less, but yes.'

 

That made Rey smirk a bit. Finn noticed, swallowed his sip of tea, and smiled in her direction.

“Jess?”

Rey aimed her smile at Finn and nodded. Ever since that night that Rey had met Jess, she hadn't really stopped talking about her.  
Rey replied to Jess with a cute smiley emoji.

 

They both finished their teas slowly, Finn had popped to a bakery across the road and a little to the right to grab a couple light breakfasts for them both. Then he kissed Rey on the cheek, wished her good luck on her quest, and headed in the opposite direction to go to his training.

 

Rey was left alone, once again. Plants and the bustle outside kept her company and alive. She loved tending to those quaint plants; to the quiet little succulents which prickled alive with upwards brushes, or felt unexpectedly velvety. The leafy, big house plants that took up most of the shop like welcoming hugs and stayed alive no matter what. The vine-y ones that traveled across all floors and practically all surfaces, nearly tripping you in a loving way. The petally soft ones that faded rather quickly, but looked absolutely lovely in bloom. There were venus flytrap ones and bamboo trees and very flowery tall ones. All sorts, many rare and most only in stock in twos, to make it even more rare.

 

It surprised Rey that Qui-Gon had all the climates and water-measuring under control. He had a very organized (in his eyes) chart of how all the plants were meant to be treated. This man loved his plants just as much as he loved his pseudo-daughter. Rey had seen that he had listed her as the sunshine emoji in his phone. That was the cutest. She bet that he did a lot of cute things behind her back, or just in secret, that she didn't know about. Being in this shop always kept her aware of how lucky she felt to have a life like this now. That she had a new family to take her under their wings and care for her in ways she'd never had thought possible until now.

 

8:30 rolled around, and Rey nearly didn't notice. She was still dreamily glancing at all the plants on display, still rather full on last night's shared dinner. A very tall man jumbled through the door; one hand on the sad, pathetic remains of an iced coffee, the other making an extravagant hand gesture. He seemed a couple years younger than Rey.

“Oh, goodness, I am so so SO very sorry I'm...”

He untangled his foot from a vine he was currently tripping over.

“I'm so very sorry that I'm late, Miss.”

“J.J.?”

She certainly wasn't expecting this type of... dude. His hair stuck out on ends, and he stood still long enough for her to notice that he was wearing a backwards cap. Most of Qui's friends were older, calmer, and musically inclined. (Hm, but the latter may still be true, she had yet to find out.)

“J.J. B, yes. But J.J. Works just fine. Again, apologies that I'm late!”

“It's okay, just stick around long enough to let me show you the ropes.”

“Yes ma'am.”

“Just call me Rey.” She gently chuckled and led J.J, around to the cart on the fridge.

“I've already taken care of the plants today, so you don't have to touch them, unless a customer wants to buy one, of course. Luckily, Qui tapes care instructions to all the individual pots, so no worries about that.”

She pointed to a half-dented vending machine to the right of the fridge.

“Here's if you need energy for the day.”

“Good,” he responded, jingling his near-to-empty cup with a toothy grin.

“Here's the sink, to the left of the fridge. All you have to do is stand awake at the register desk, okay? Oh, and every half hour, make sure to send a message to either Qui-Gon or myself.”

“You mean Gin?”

“Pardon?”

“Qui-Gon.. Jinn... Gin.. That's what I call him,” He let out the lightest nervous chuckle. “Inside joke.”

Rey nodded, an understanding smile on her kind lips.

“Kick the side of this machine if it makes a strange noise, okay?”

She'd motioned towards a machine near the stairs. J.J. Nodded suspiciously.

 

Rey stayed with the tall man who slurped the last of his coffee and burped with a courteous apology afterwards. J.J. entertained Rey by picking out some bugs around the plants and collecting them in a pristine, half-cracked ashtray on the counter. Later on, Rey crouched down to the counter and whispered to the bugs before picking up her stuff to the side. Her bag had been on the side for a long while, and she was bored. She wanted an adventure, so she decided to get a head-start on her little quest ahead of her.

 

J.J. seemed rather flustered as she waved him goodbye and slid through the door. She had left him a dry untouched croissant from this morning, as well as a few coins. Enough to buy about two drinks from the vending machine.

 

The air was slick, making her eyes well-up a bit. It was still sunny, though. More clouds had appeared since this morning. The trek to Duro was quite the journey, and Rey wasn't new to travelling alone. However, it was still a trip and a half, and her eyes were very often blood-shot. The bus she had to take was nearly late by three minutes, but that didn't worry her one bit. She'd had much much worse transport before.

 

Halfway there, her tummy grumbled, making her slightly regret the croissant she had left behind. A few girls at the front of the bus distracted her and had reminded her of Jess, in many ways, and Rey immediately went to text her. She snapped a quick picture of herself with her 'quirky Jess smile' and some of the scenery of green behind her; a very slightly bumpy prairie. Not a minute after, she received a picture of Jess and one of her friends she'd not met before - probably a pilot friend. If she had to take a wild guess, it would've been Karé - with the caption:

'Good luck, friend! Keep me updated!' - sent with a couple of flower and leaf emojis at the end.

 

As the bus got to her destination, it dawned on Rey that she had no idea where she was supposed to be heading, so she sent 'Qui-Gong' a text, and he directly sent her a quite useful map a handful of minutes afterwards.  
She sent Jess another text of a teeny flower in her palm with the caption:

'Not my flower, but I thought I'd share the prettiness.'

 

There was no response from Jess, but Rey didn't let that stop her. She, instead, followed the map as carefully as she could and put some earbuds in. She liked to listen to rather soft music when she went to go walking in nature. It reminded her of the little flower shop. Here, though, she felt a bit more at ease without the cramped feeling of the small city around her. A breath of fresh air was something she'd definitely needed.

 

Along the way, she got two pictures from Qui, of two different angles of the flower she was looking for. Finn had sent Rey a picture of his flexed bicep, Maz looking ogle-eyed in the background. He had sent a winky face emoji, and then a crying-with-laughter smiley face. It made Rey giggle and nearly trip over a prickly plant.

 

Mountainous high cliffs needed slight climbing, and managed to give Rey blisters on her hands. She had minimally prepared for a plant-hike. Along the way, a herd of horned creatures had nearly blocked her way, but she found a way around with careful steps. She tried climbing up a smooth multicoloured bark tree – both for fun, and to see if she could see the flower from up higher. Not much later, she realized she wasn't as good at climbing as she thought, and nearly fell.

 

She sent Jess about five more pictures of some of her favourite little cacti that she found near a road. She sent Finn an accidental blurry picture of her hand. It had a bunch of nettles, needles, blisters, and dirt. He sent a selfie-of-disgust as a response.

J.J. had sent her two pictures. He started with the caption: 'Business is swell'

There was a cat – orange and a bit calico-looking on the counter, with the plants in the background. They looked obviously a bit rearranged. Then, the next picture was three and a half (supposedly) customers with plants in their hands. (The half was because the last person was practically cut out.)

 

Rey didn't ask questions, only raised an eyebrow, smiled, and continued on trekking.

 

She approached a very small opening where a lot of brightly coloured flowers lay. This made Rey perk up. Exhausted, she sat down for a bit, downed the rest of the first of three water bottles that she brought. Being sat in a little bed of flowers made her feel at peace and wonderful. After a while of examining, she saw that her flower wasn't in the bunch, and she struggled to get up. Her trek was getting more difficult, and she was getting less updates and pictures from her friends, favourite people, and plant babysitter.

 

Rey felt like she was beginning to stink – her hair in loose buns bobbing along as she took long steps. Her white tank and her khaki pants had small pools of sweat already on them. She now constantly glanced at her phone, but was afraid of it dying too soon.

 

With no surprise, she was right, it died a couple minutes after she had thought about it. She was now left in the wild without a map and without connections. She fretted a bit, but thinking of the little jungle in the core of the city next to the ramen place with Finn wrapped in bed and wiggling his toes to jazz music with a big cup of tea... all of that made her happy. She thought of the time Jess held her hand, making it warm in the dusk of a cold evening night after they had been kicked out of a coffee shop for chatting too long. The aches in her legs were less apparent now.

 

A craggy threshold appeared close by, just out of reach. Rey decided that this was her last step, her whole body ached with cramps and pains and she was already having trouble reminding herself of the way back. She leaped forwards, a leg just missing an opening in the rock. Her body breathed a sigh of relief with her successful jump, and with it came an unexpected, surprising tear.

When Rey cleared her eyes of all tears and sweat for a moment, she saw another bed of flowers. This time, it was securely smaller, and... the right flowers. She couldn't believe it. More relieved sighs escaped her, and with them, the urge to text all her friends (and new-found friends) pictures.  
Instead, she cached all the flowers into her backpack. Not all, but as many as she could salvage. She wanted to make sure she was treating them right. Some were placed in tiny potters, other gently squashed between book covers. Still, she wanted to also leave as many as she could. The tiny purple bud was bright and lively and did remind Rey of Qui, rather a lot.

She closed her eyes in a moment, sensing the lightest breeze and a sudden wave of relief.

 

Rey carried her bruised feet slowly but surely off of the crag and back down on the ground. With the rest of her water and heavy breaths, she trudged back to her bus stop. Sweat and tears of this journey had made her wish that she'd brought a towel with her, too, but she kept telling herself that it was far too late now as she saw the bus roll around. The bus journey back was twice as long, two buses, and a twenty minute slow walk back to the shop. When she opened the door again, she was faced with another chaos.

 

J.J. had apparently rearranged a lot of the plants, a squeak of a bunny was munching on a plant that Rey knew had hallucinogen effects. And J.J. was sitting on the counter, playing on his phone.

He hopped off of the counter when he saw Rey enter.

“Ohh, my! Miss!!”

He looked at her all worried, and then glanced around and extravagantly waved a hand towards his mouth. He repeated the “Ohh, my! Miss!!” But didn't do much.

 

Rey didn't look too concerned. Instead, she placed a hand on J.J.'s shoulder and squeezed with a rather light force.

“Let's get this cleared up before Qui comes, yeah?”

He nodded fast and immediately went for the mysterious bunny. Rey re-ordered the plants much quicker than she thought she would have. It was truly a mess in here, but none of it stopped Rey from being overly-frustrated, especially because of what she'd just gone through.

“Me... me, I'm very sorry ma'am.”

“Rey,” She corrected, but smiled at J.J. “Just make sure you take better care of the place next time.”

“You think there'll be a next time, miss... Rey?”

“There might be, J.J.”

She giggled at his baffled expression and handed him one of the encased purple flowers. He twiddled it in his fingers with a curious look. By the time she was done messaging each of her friends, Qui opened the door with a huff of a breath.

 

He smelled of mysterious, sweet smoke. And also donuts.  
A smile emerged from him as he spotted J.J. and Rey stood side by side. Rey held out a sample of the flower to him. He gave her a side-hug, and a donut with his grin and mumbled to her.

“You should go wash up, you brave warrior adventurer.”

He didn't even take a look around to see if the place was touched or if many of the plants had been sold.

“And you,” he jokingly punched the side of J.J's shoulder to get him out of his daze.

“Go home and get some rest, you did good work.”

J.J. B grinned like a little kid and walked out of the store with another big-handed wave and his hat on the right-way around, still clutching his flower and a donut.  
Rey smiled as she watched him leave. Qui was now covering her shift and was checking on some of the plants.

 

After her shower, she noticed Jess had sent her a cute tiny video of herself saying:

“Great job, my sweet little adventurer!” And she blew a kiss. It made Rey blush, but Jess didn't get to see that, so she sent a blushing emoji instead.

Finn sent her a 'good job!!!!!!!!!!!!!!' Yes, with that many exclamation points. He sent the widest grin he could manage. Rey cuddled her feet deep into Finn's 'Rey' blanket and sent her own widest grin.

 

Before turning off her phone or hearing any more text chimes, Rey felt a tiny fluff ball tickling her feet and then snuggle out from under the covers. The bunny inched it's way onto Rey's pouched-up tummy, where the crumbs of the donut were falling. There was nothing quite like snuggling the softest bunny before going to sleep after a day of hectic flower-collecting hikes and socializing. All content, all soft.


End file.
